The present invention is related to communications management systems and, more particularly, to a routing system for a call directed to a call center.
Incoming telephone calls to a call center, e.g. to a customer service help center, are generally routed to the next available call center service representative in the following manner. A customer places a call to a customer service number. The call is switched through a PSTN to the customer premise equipment (CPE) of the customer service call center. An Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) routes the incoming calls to agent groups based on predetermined specifications. The Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) delivers the number dialed by the customer to the call center. This allows the call center to route the call based on the specific number dialed by the customer and also allows agents to identify the nature of the incoming call based on the number dialed. For example, separate numbers may be provided for new orders, existing orders, and returns.
Based on the number dialed, the ACD routes the call to the appropriate department. Interactive voice response units (VRUs) are used to allow callers to select certain preferences using their touch-tone phones or speech recognition to enable ACD to route the call to the appropriate departments. For example, xe2x80x9cpress or say one for toys,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cpress or say two for Bicycles,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cpress or say three for sports equipment.xe2x80x9d This delivers the call to the agent responsible for those preferences. Additionally, Automatic Number Identification (ANI) is provided to call center representatives which allows customer data to be delivered from the database to the representative""s desktop along with the call. The routing provided by ACD and the VRU utilizing data such as DNIS and ANI is often not adequate in identifying the customer""s need and matching that need with the customer service representative most likely to satisfy that need. This technology simply routes calls to the first available agent by general work function and there is no proof (statistical or experimental) that such routing is related to customer satisfaction.
Accordingly, the prior art provides only generalized call routing capability. It is possible to route calls based on the ANI of the incoming call, by time of day, or by DNIS (the number dialed by the caller). A caller may use dual tone multiple frequency (DTMF) or voice technology to select a choice or preference that routes the call based on the selection. All of these methods assist in routing of a call from a customer with a specific need to a call center representative that has the means to satisfy that need.
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for specifically routing a call based on the profile of the caller, the profile of the call center representative, and for updating the system based on experience to provide for more accurate call routing. The system accesses customer profile information and/or service customer representative profile and compares the customer""s needs to the representative skill sets and job functions. It ranks the customer service representatives that can best meet the customer""s needs. The system then proceeds to route the incoming call to the service representative that is most likely to successfully meet the customer""s needs. The system performs a post-call routine to determine how successfully it matched the customer with the appropriate call center representative.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method and apparatus for routing an incoming call to a customer service representative is disclosed. The caller of the incoming call is first identified and a profile on the caller is retrieved. The caller profile is then compared with stored customer service representative profiles to determine which customer service representatives are more qualified to handle the incoming call. The customer service representatives are ranked according to who can best meet the caller""s needs, and the incoming call is routed to the highest ranked available customer service representative. If the highest ranked customer service representative is not available or can not handle the call, the call is routed to the next highest available customer service representative
According to another embodiment of the invention, a method and apparatus for routing an incoming call to a customer service representative is disclosed. The caller of the incoming call is first identified and a profile on the caller is retrieved. The caller is then prompted with a list of questions. The caller profile and answers to the prompted questions are then compared with stored customer service representative profiles to determine which customer service representatives are more qualified to handle the incoming call. The customer service representatives are then ranked according to who can best meet the caller""s needs, and the incoming call is routed to the highest ranked customer service representative.